Google Purportedly Testing NFC Payment Machines In NY/SF Stores

Google may be opting out when it comes to joining the social networking
game, but they're saying yes to mobile payments. The Samsung-built Nexus
S was one of the first NFC-enabled smartphones to ship in America, and now Google
is reportedly ready to start testing a mobile payment trial at stores in
NY and SF. The Bloomberg article on the matter suggests that the trials
could begin in four months, and it will let shoppers use their phones
to buy items at those stores. NFC and contact-less payments have
frequently been used to pay for mass transit, but particularly in
America, it's still rare to see stores setup to accept NFC payments.

Google will be footing the bill to install these systems (VeriFone
Systems) at stores, and the registers would reportedly "accept payments
from mobile phones equipped with
so-called near-field-communication technology." If you have an NFC
phone, you'll need to connect a credit card with that account, and then
you can tap your phone on the mobile terminal to check out. No one has
confirmed the plans yet, but it all makes perfect sense. Google's very
interested in getting deep into the NFC arena. This technology is poised
to explode in America, and there's plenty Google can do from an
advertising standpoint whenever location-based solutions are used.
Hopefully it'll be showing up in even more cities soon.